July 24, 2006

Film hero Cruise defeats cyber-pirate, offscreen

by ssavage

GENEVA (Reuters) - Tom Cruise on Monday won an off-screen
combat -- against a cyber-pirate who was using his name for
advertising.

The U..N. intellectual property agency WIPO said an
Internet dispute body it runs had ruled for Cruise -- who in
recent roles has battled Martian invaders and ancient Japanese
warlords -- in a cyber-squatting case.

The pirate, identified only as Network Operations
Center/Alberta Hot Rods, was ordered to hand over the Internet
domain name tomcruise.com to the actor, WIPO said.

The judge in the case, conducted on-line, said the pirate
outfit had been using the site to divert Cruise fans to another
selling goods and services with no link to the actor.

The Hollywood hero was the latest in a series of
celebrities who have won cases against the U.S.-based Network
Operations Center for misuse of their names.

The others included Canadian singer Celine Dion, stage and
screen actor-director Kevin Spacey, and popular fiction writers
Michael Crichton and Jeffrey Archer.